Trends and Directions in the Accounting, Business and Economic History of Spain, 1997-2011

This paper examines the determinants of citation success among authors who have published on the economic and business history of Spain. It departs from the dominant cross section approach to the quantitative assessment of citation success by enabling a 15-year time series analysis of peer-reviewed Spanish and Latin American outlets. Moreover, it considers working papers published online and assesses the role of Spanish as a medium to communicate with an international audience. Our results suggest a high concentration of publications and citations in a small number of authors (including non-residents) and the importance of local journals in citation success. Besides offering clues about how to improve one’s scientific impact, our citation analysis also sheds light on the state of the field of economic and business history in Spanish economic circles and attests the role of Spain as an intermediate country in the production and diffusion of scientific knowledge.